Shadow Work Inventory Questionnaire

Questions by PaleoAstra.
Part of the series on Jungian Psychology.

Inventory Questionnaire

What are your favourite things/special interests? Why? What is your history with those, have they always been your favourite? What draws you to those? Talk about as many things as you want including things like favourite colour, foods, scents, textures, books, hobbies, shows, games, sports, topics of interest. Anything that you enjoy is fair game.
What are some of your least favourite things? Why? What is your history with them, have you always disliked them? What is it that you don't like about them? Talk about as many things as you want including colours, foods, scents, textures, books, hobbies, shows, games, sports, topics. Anything you dislike is fair game.
What is your name? What does it mean to you? Who picked it? Why? What is your relationship to that name? Are you happy with it? Have you gone by different names, nicknames, or pseudonyms throughout your life? Who picked those? What do they mean to you? What is your relationship with those names? If you could pick any name to go by, what would you choose? What draws you to that name? What is stopping you from using that name? . (edited)
What are some key features of your external identity and presentation? Topics like gender, orientation, religion, political affiliation, subcultures, generation, fandoms, and more. How do these impact your life? How do you interact with them? In what ways do those associations affect the way you think or feel?
What are some key features of your internal identity? How do you see yourself? What traits make you you? What are the foundations of your sense of self?
Who are you? Write a short summary of who you are as if for a blog or author summary. What about these specific traits most defines you? How does identifying with these traits affect your sense of self?
What are your motivations? What motivates you to do what you do? What desires or fears are at the forefront of your decision making process? . (edited)
What are some of your biases? Where did they come from? How do they affect your thoughts and behaviors? How do they affect your choices or how you treat other people? What have you already had to unlearn? What are you still working on?
What are your biggest doubts, fears, or worries? What causes anxiety in your life? What do these anxieties stem from? Are these realistic concerns? How do these anxieties affect your thoughts, actions, or health?
What are the biggest stressors currently in your life? How do you cope with stress? Is there anything you have the power to change about these stressors? If so, what would that look like? If not, what are you doing to deal with that stress and how is it affecting you? What could be done to help alleviate or redirect that stress?
How good are you at identifying when you need help and/or asking for help when you know you need it? How do fear of rejection, pride, or fear of vulnerability play into this? What holds you back from asking for help most.
What are your biggest challenges or roadblocks? What holds you back most? What is stopping you from being the best you you can be?
What is your emotional landscape like? Which emotions drive your choices? Which emotions end up making you lose control? Which emotions do you struggle to accept? Which emotions get in the way of progress most often? What triggers these emotions? How do they impact your thoughts or behaviors? How do you handle frustration, anger, sadness, disappointment, or betrayal? How do you express these feelings? How do you express positive feelings? .
What is your self esteem like? What are some things you like about yourself and why? What do you dislike and why? What is your self-talk like? What do you beat yourself up about the most?
What is your relationship with your body like? With food/your weight? Sexuality and pleasure? With pain, mobility difficulties, or things like vision or hearing loss? What physical traits of yours do you like best? Which do you like least? If you have a partner, what are their favourite parts of you, and how do they differ from your favourites? What have you gotten the most compliments from strangers about? What about from friends?
What is your relationship with your brain and it's biochemistry like? Are there any mental illnesses or learning disabilities that you deal with? How does your knowledge of these affect the other aspects of your life or how you deal with the symptoms of said illness? How does this affect your coping mechanisms? How does it affect how you treat other people? How do you treat yourself in light of or because of it?
What vices or addictions do you have? Alcohol? Gambling? Adrenaline? Gossip? Caffeine? Social media? Others? How do these addictions affect you? Are these healthy to continue? If they are negatively affecting you is that something you could realistically reduce to a non harmful level while still keeping in your life? Do you even want to keep them in your life? What would quitting entail? Does it make more sense for you to do harm reduction or to excise them entirely?
What are you most proud of? What would it take for you to be proud of something? How do you personally define success? What would a successful shadow work journey look like for you? And what are you most ashamed of? What are your greatest regrets?
Do you hold yourself to a different standard than you hold others to? Is this a realistic standard to set? If you expected others to live up to the standard you set for yourself, what would that look like? How successful would the important people in your life be when measured to that standard?
Who are the most important people in your life? Why are each of them important to you? What makes them special to you? Are there things you trust some of these people with more than others? How do you treat these important people? How do they treat you? How balanced is this equation?
What traumas have you experienced? What about those events made it traumatic? What do your trauma responses look like? What coping mechanisms do you use? Which of these end up being most helpful or beneficial? Which are maladaptive? How do these traumas, along with the associated trauma responses, impact your behaviors, thought patterns, or sense of self?
What are some of your coping mechanisms? What do they help you cope with? Which are beneficial? Which are maladaptive? How do they impact your behavior, thoughts, or how you think of or treat people?
What patterns do you see in your life that you know are negative and are holding you back? What is driving the feelings or logic behind these? Where did they come from? What in this situation is out of your control/beyond your ability to change? What parts can you change?